Solved VLC - codec not supported

balanga · 2026-04-07T19:52:56+0100

I'm trying to play some mp3 music files using VLC but get the following errors:-

Codec not supported:

VLC could not decode the format "mpga" (MPEG Audio layer 1/2)

mpg123 has no problem with the same files. What am I missing?

nxjoseph@ · 2026-04-07T20:08:30+0100

Playing a random .mp3 worked for me with vlc-3.0.22_2,4.

MPEG2 option is turned off by default, maybe try with it?

Code:

MPEG2_LIB_DEPENDS=      libmpeg2.so:multimedia/libmpeg2
MPEG2_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= libmpeg2

cracauer@ · 2026-04-07T20:17:21+0100

What iis "mpga"

kent_dorfman766 · 2026-04-07T23:35:54+0100

cracauer@ said:
What iis "mpga"

mpga is the 4cc code that identifies the container data as mpeg-1 layer-3 mp3 audio. Any player needs to map the 4cc code to the correct codec. The OP problem is probly a 4cc code mismatch.

Alain De Vos · 2026-04-08T00:24:09+0100

audacious,strawberry ?

balanga · 2026-04-08T06:24:26+0100

cracauer@ said:
What iis "mpga"

I don't know, I'm only quoting from the error log. I was trying to play an mp3 file.

balanga · 2026-04-08T06:26:41+0100

kent_dorfman766 said:
mpga is the 4cc code that identifies the container data as mpeg-1 layer-3 mp3 audio. Any player needs to map the 4cc code to the correct codec. The OP problem is probly a 4cc code mismatch.

If so, what can I do about it?

balanga · 2026-04-08T06:30:06+0100

nxjoseph@ said:
Playing a random .mp3 worked for me with vlc-3.0.22_2,4.

MPEG2 option is turned off by default, maybe try with it?

Code:

MPEG2_LIB_DEPENDS= libmpeg2.so:multimedia/libmpeg2 MPEG2_CONFIGURE_ENABLE= libmpeg2

I have 3.0.21. pkg upgrade said I had the latest version.

You mention options, does that suggest that you built the port rather than using the pkg?

nxjoseph@ · 2026-04-08T08:55:12+0100

balanga said:
You mention options, does that suggest that you built the port rather than using the pkg?

Yeah but kept with default options.

balanga said:
I have 3.0.21. pkg upgrade said I had the latest version.

I see. I try to keep my installed ports as recent as possible by building them myself.

Tieks · 2026-04-08T14:12:21+0100

nxjoseph@ said:
Yeah but kept with default options.

Port multimedia/vlc has a runtime dependency on multimedia/ffmpeg. Check the config options for ffmpeg.

balanga · 2026-04-08T15:52:49+0100

Tieks said:
Port multimedia/vlc has a runtime dependency on multimedia/ffmpeg. Check the config options for ffmpeg.

That mentions 3.0.22_2,4 , but I did a pkg upgrade yesterday and was told I already have the latest version installed and that is 3.0.21 Vetinary, so I don't understand what is going on.

nxjoseph@ · 2026-04-08T15:54:52+0100

balanga said:
I don't understand what is going on.

I don't use FreeBSD official pkg(8) repositories, that's it. I build them myself and that means I might be "ahead". It's about how "recent" my ports(7) tree is.

balanga · 2026-04-08T16:11:55+0100

nxjoseph@ said:
I don't use FreeBSD official pkg(8) repositories, that's it. I build them myself and that means I might be "ahead". It's about how "recent" my ports(7) tree is.

http://www.freshports.org/multimedia/vlc mentions the version you are running.

I've just changed the repository to latest from quaterly and now have 3.0.22 and the previous problems have disappeared.